1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electrolytic recovery of metals and more particularly to a novel electrolytic apparatus for recovering a metal from a solution containing ions of the metal. The apparatus of this invention is especially well suited for use with silver-laden solutions and is advantageously employed in recovering spent or recirculated silver from fixing solutions employed in photographic processing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Methods for electrolytic recovery of metals are well known. Such methods usually involve immersing a pair of electrodes in the electrolytic solution and impressing across the electrodes a voltage of sufficient magnitude to effect migration of the metal ions to the cathode and deposition of the metal on the cathode surface in the form of a coherent plate which is subsequently removed. Electrolytic cells capable of accomplishing the desired recovery of metal have been developed in diverse forms embodying a variety of principles of operation and corresponding structural variations.
A shortcoming with a vast majority of these prior art systems is that the equipment is very expensive to manufacture. Moreover, the recovery process is cumbersome and costly, thereby combining to make the entire cost of recovery exorbitantly high.
Another shortcoming with previous systems is that relatively high current densities are necessary to ensure rapid and complete removal of metal ions. Such high current densities lead to poor physical form of the metallic plate, as well as degradation of the solution constituents.
The prior art patents uncovered in a patent search on the present invention are listed as follows:
______________________________________ 583,255 Georges 2,834,724 Mendes 3,368,950 Levine, et al. 3,409,530 Locke, et al. 3,533,918 Smith 3,544,431 Spoon 3,551,317 Cooley 3,560,366 Fisher 3,655,547 Lyons, Jr. 3,661,756 Spoon 3,715,299 Anderson, et al. 3,759,813 Raetzsch, et al. 3,941,675 Strasser, et al. ______________________________________